


Tu Bishvat

by transmarkcohen



Series: Jewish Holidays [3]
Category: Rent - Larson
Genre: F/F, F/M, Holidays, Jewish, Judaism, M/M, Tu BiShvat
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-02-26
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:14:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29047500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transmarkcohen/pseuds/transmarkcohen
Summary: Maureen and Mark were hired to work at a TV station, but a rift comes between them on a certain project. Joanne and Maureen drift further apart.
Relationships: Joanne Jefferson/Maureen Johnson, Mark Cohen/Original Male Character(s), Roger Davis/Mimi Marquez, Thomas B. Collins/Angel Dumott Schunard
Series: Jewish Holidays [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2073855
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. The Rift

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anothergayrentfan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anothergayrentfan/gifts).



> Happy Tu Bishvat!
> 
> This work will have multiple chapters, and take place over multiple days.  
> Again, this work has a lot less to do with the holiday as it gets more plot-focused, but this is important in the story.
> 
> edit: it has 2 chapters which is technically multiple just small, and I AM working on Purim even though outside of walled cities I’m a day late

Mark walked swiftly out of the TV station, Maureen struggling to catch up to him. "Mark!" she called. "Mark, I didn't mean anything-" 

"I know you didn't," he cut her off, his tongue sharp enough to cut steel. "Let me leave, Johnson." 

Maureen stopped dead in her tracks. Mark  _ never  _ talked like that to anyone. Never. And he never called Maureen anything except her first name. Not even her middle name, Janice, to tease her. 

She watched him walk out the door, staring after him. Just before he reached outside he turned swiftly on his heel and stared daggers at her. "Don't follow me." 

"I wasn't-" 

But he was gone before she could finish. 

Maureen's thoughts tumbled over and over in her head. She had to do something. She knew she had messed up. She raced out of the TV station, a random cameraman calling after her. She ran all the way back home.

Maureen didn't try to reach Mark again until the next day. She used the phone and tried to call Mark, but it just rang out. Roger must've been somewhere else, too. Maureen sighed after the third time with nobody picking up. She went into Joanne's study, where her fiancée was working on something. Joanne looked up and smiled. 

"Hey, Maureen," she said. 

"Hi, Joanne," Maureen answered, looking worried. "Um...I've been trying to call Mark-" Joanne immediately frowned. "-I know, I know! But I want to apologize for yesterday, but neither he or Roger are picking up, and if I try to go over he'll just kick me out again, so…" Maureen took a deep breath. "Could you go over and tell him?"

Joanne sighed. Stood up from her chair. "Yes, Maureen," she answered. "I can go and...apologize  _ for  _ you." She marched out of the room and grabbed her coat, heading out the door to Mark and Roger's apartment. 

When she came back, she was no longer angry, only worried. She looked at Maureen and said just one thing - "Maureen, Mark's disappeared." 

Maureen, Joanne, Mimi, and Roger had put together a tiny search party to look for Mark. They didn’t want to alert the local authorities for several reasons, and they were hoping they knew him well enough that they could find him.

"So...what  _ actually  _ happened between you and Mark?" Roger broke the silence they had been walking in, looking at Maureen. She hugged herself and stared at the ground. 

"I, uh...got him pregnant," she said quietly. 

"What?' Mimi asked, disbelieving. 

Maureen nodded, stopping in the snow. "When we were still dating, there was a night we didn't use a condom. And you can pretty much guess what happened next. Anyway...Mark really wanted to keep the baby, but he couldn't, because of all the financial stuff-" She glanced at Roger. He made a little gesture for her to continue. She sighed. "...so he got an abortion." 

Roger took Mimi's hand. Mimi frowned, looking at Maureen. "And?" she said. 

"And...I...uh…" Maureen wrung her hands. "...kind of...got angry at him for it. I yelled at him, I said some really nasty stuff. It wasn't good." 

"That's not all," Joanne said, tight-lipped. Mimi gaped at her. Maureen cringed. 

"No," she said. "It's not all. When we were staying at your place, Roger, I...told Joanne the whole thing. Er... _ my  _ version of the whole thing." 

"Oh, no," Roger shook his head, and continued walking. Maureen's words came out faster, spilling into a ramble. 

"And, see, I didn't think it would be a problem, so I told Mark that I'd told Joanne, but he really flipped out at me, I mean this was later and after Hanukkah but it was bad, and you know he kicked me out a couple times of the apartment, and oh my god it's Tu Bishvat, I made him go away on another  _ holiday,  _ and-oh god I'm such an  _ asshole."  _

Joanne nodded. 

"...what...happened now?" Roger asked, glancing back at the TV station. "I mean, there can't possibly be anything worse than what you already did to make him hate you?" 

Maureen closed her eyes. "...maybe...a little," She said quietly. "Um...It was my protest about abortion, and I was trying to apologize to him on camera, so I said something like 'you need to support your partner if that's what they want', and I didn't know it would be a  _ problem,  _ but he was glaring at me and afterwards he pulled me aside and said I should've apologized a lot earlier. And more directly. And...in private." 

Joanne pulled her hand out of Maureen's. Maureen had felt it loosening, but her fiancée finally separated from her. Her heart felt bitter. She deserved it. 

"Anyway...the TV station noticed we had some drama going on, and asked us to...maybe talk about it. Mark said no, but they said they'd fire us if we didn't. He can't stop working there. He needs the money. So he asked me what we should come up with for our drama." Maureen braced herself, realizing what she was going to say next. 

"Oh,  _ no,"  _ said Mimi, realizing at the same time. 

"...I asked him why we couldn't just say what actually happened." 

Roger physically winced. 

"He...yelled at me, and I tried to explain my side, cause I didn't think it was that  _ bad,  _ because, c'mon, Mark, we're already selling out, isn't our personal stuff just the next step?" She bit her lip. "I...realize I did something wrong. But I'm not exactly sure what." 

"You're not sure what you did  _ WRONG?!"  _ Joanne stared at her girlfriend, hard. 

"No." Maureen smiled a little as she looked up at her girlfriend. "Oh, Pookie, you're so beautiful…" She leaned up for a kiss, grabbing her hands, but Joanne yanked them away and started marching off. 

" _ No,  _ Maureen." she said. 

Roger and Mimi glanced at each other. If only Angel and Collins were here...they were good at conflict defusal. And they could help find Mark. But no one knew where they were these days. 

"Let's...just go find Mark," Roger muttered, as he and Mimi followed Joanne. 

Maureen stared after her friends, knowing that this time, she had really, truly fucked up. 


	2. Mark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Mark went.

He was out on the street, and God, was he cold. He hadn't gone back to his apartment after blowing up at Maureen. 

Mark shivered in only his sweater and jacket as he walked down the streets of snowy New York City. He reached into his pocket and found...three dollars. Plus some coins, one which was a euro that he had no idea how he'd gotten. 

Right. He would head to Life Support. They could know what to do. 

Shivering, he walked towards the building which was really more of multipurpose space than just a place for PWA. He heard it had been a church once. 

That was hilarious. 

_ Yeah, watch the sinning, queer Jew head into this Christian building,  _ he thought as he pushed open the door. It was wooden on one side, glass and metal on the other. The building itself was more traditional, but they were clearly trying to update their look. 

Mark stepped inside, shaking the snow off. He glanced around, looking at this place that he still didn't know too well but already felt somewhat like home. 

He just wanted a friend. 

He could've gone back to Roger, but he didn't want to explain the situation. So instead, he went up the stairs to where Life Support was held to find Paul. The man worked at the center, not just for Life Support, so Mark knew he would be here today. He pushed open the door to the meeting room. 

Inside, Paul was setting some chairs out. He glanced up when he heard the door swing open, and then smiled. "Hi, Mark," he said. "Did you want to help me set up?" 

"Actually...I came to talk about something," Mark said, sitting down in one of the chairs. 

Then everything spilled out. 

He rambled for about thirty minutes about all of his problems to Paul, the pregnancy, the abortion, Maureen's distinct lack of respect for his privacy, the arranged marriage. All the time Paul watched him and nodded, listening intently as if they hadn't just met a few weeks ago. 

"Maybe you should actually talk things out with Maureen," Paul commented, which earned him a glare from Mark. 

"How will  _ that  _ help in any conceivable fucking way? Sorry." 

Paul shrugged. "You know her best. You could probably get her to understand best." 

Mark looked at the floor. "I...I don't know. I've tried to explain to her why she's overstepped and how and...all that, but it always seems to fall flat." 

"One more time," Paul suggested. "Then see what happens." 

"I...yeah, okay." Mark stood up, shakily smiling. "Thanks, Paul." 

"No problem." 

He left the room, walking out from the community center into the cold, brilliantly white street where snow had started to fall again. 

Mark didn't know where he was going. He just kept walking. Far away from and, more importantly, far away from Maureen.

He didn’t know when anyone would ever find him. 


End file.
